Yesterday, Mrs. LOJ took my car in to have it checked. For the past week or so, my trusty steed has been having troubles starting. I thought it might be the battery or maybe (gulp!) the starter.
Well, about mid-morning, while chatting with my co-teacher, my cell phone gives me a message that my credit card, that Mrs. LOJ never let's me have, got hit for 105,000 Won. My reaction was to exclaim
"What the fuck!!!???" My co-teacher looked at me kind of strange and asked,
LOJ, what does mean "What duh puck?" I calmly told her it was a way western couples express affection. OK, OK, it was the best thing I could think of on short notice. Give me a break here.
I called Mrs. LOJ and when she answered I said
"Hi! What the fuck?" My co-teacher just smiled at me. Mrs. LOJ explained that the battery was shot and needed to be replaced. She added there were a few other things that needed to be "reconnected." OK, what the hell could I do? She was there and I was at school watching my co-teacher doodle
"What the fuck," surrounded by little hearts, in her notebook. Mrs. LOJ added that after the service center she would take the car to a place near our house to get it washed.
Later, Mrs. LOJ brings me the car at school and she is pissed off. She says,
"I hate you. You are a pig!" Taken aback, I replied
"What's the problem?" She claimed that she was never so embarrassed in her life (Other than when she took me to meet the parents the first time and they asked her
"He is the best you can do?"). Uh oh. This wasn't going to be good.
Apparently, the car was a wee bit dirty. An interior/exterior washing of the car usually takes about 30 minutes for two people to do. However, it took two people over 2 hours to clean my car. Mrs. LOJ felt so bad that she bought lunch for the two people cleaning the car. She repeated
"You are a pig!" I replied
"Wow, it only took you 19 years to figure that out!" Not a good thing to say - I ended up having kimbap and crackers for dinner.
While the guys were cleaning my car, one of them asked
"What's your husbands job?" When he found out, he laughed and replied,
"Oh, I thought he was a construction worker from the looks of the car." Later, Mr. Funny Carwash Guy sought to reassure Mrs. LOJ. He commented
"You don't have to worry about your husband having a girlfriend." Mrs. LOJ asked
Why? You see picture of my husband? and he replied, to paraphrase,
"No woman would dare ride in a car that was this dirty and smelled this bad." Gee, thanks Carwash Guy. If he thought my car was bad, he should wash my underwear sometime!
After all was said and done, it cost me 22,000 Won, and a lunch, to have my car cleaned. Before she left, Carwash Guy told (begged) Mrs. LOJ not to wait another 6 years to clean the car. He pleaded
"Bring it back next month so we can have an easier time!" Mrs. LOJ is now using
"Pig!" as a little cutesy romantic name for me. I don't mind, though. I was getting a little tired of
"Shit-for-brains" anyways.
Later today I think I need to talk to my co-teacher about the new English phrase she learned yesterday. Yep, that's going to be an interesting conversation.
The weather's fine, I don't have pig flu, and I have a clean car. Life is good.